Jonny Havey: Plugging Hidden Profit Leaks Through Employee Education and Customer ROI

Welcome to the Behavioral Profit Show, where

we look at the behavior behind business results.

I'm Debbie Longo, executive behavioral coach.

And on this show, we go beyond strategy and talk

about decisions, communication patterns, leadership

behaviors, and internal shifts that shape trust

culture, performance, and profit. Today's conversation

is about what really drives change. Not just

what people say they want, but the behaviors

that create the results they get. We have a very

special guest today, Johnny Havy. He is the founder

of eLearning. partners, a business consultant,

and former CPA and IT auditor at PWC. He partners

with forward -thinking business owners and teams

within S &P 500 companies to identify and eliminate

hidden profit leaks by turning education into

competitive advantage. Through his work, Johnny

helps organizations increase product adoption,

improve customer and employee retention, and

drive measurable profit growth. His approach

focuses on closing the gap between between what

businesses are doing and what customers and employees

need and what creates real lasting results. Good

afternoon, Johnny. Welcome to the show. Thanks

for having me. That'd be super exciting to be

here today. Thank you for being here. I just

gave a little bit of introduction. So is there

anything that you would like to add to that?

Biggest thing that I've learned over being an

entrepreneur for a decade plus is that what business

owners need to do and teams within S &P 500 companies,

these leaders in these large organizations is

really understand the return on investment that

their customers that they serve want to get and

what return on investment their employees want

to get. That's the most important thing. We exist

as businesses. serve our customers and to serve

our employees. Employees are as much customers

as ours, as our customers are. So when you really

understand the return on investment that these

two groups want to get, you're able to align

what your business does with that and really

grow and create impact. So that's really what

I've learned over the years and what I help business

owners and S &P 500 company leaders do today.

That's very good. And what happens, like you

said, the ultimate idea here. And the ultimate

goal here is to increase sales and profits. And

there's a hundred ways to do that, of course.

And your way really gets to the heart and the

meat of what's going on in the company and in

the industry. I find kind of as a business owner

myself and a former CPA, I believe that at the

end of the day, in order for a business to continue

running, you need profit. You just do. Profit

is a tool for us to serve more people. So if

you're running a business that is losing money,

you're actually doing a disservice to your employees

and you're doing a disservice to your customers

and the world because you can't keep going. So

what I like to do is go in and really help business

owners and these S &P 500 leaders identify these

gaps or these leaks that may exist, and then

plug them and grow revenue and decrease expenses

so that they can keep serving these groups, customers

and employees. back to the most obvious thing

is that every business has to increase sales

and profits. If they don't every year, eventually

they do. Not all businesses have a gain every

year. That's just a fact. But if they don't,

then they can't function. They'll eventually

go bankrupt and go out of business. So that's

why that's the ultimate goal. If I'm on the S

&P 500 or the stock market, now I have a complicated

business. I have people to answer to. I have

more pressure. to gain and increase my stock,

my value of my company. So there's a lot of pressure

and I'm not the one running the company. I have

stockholders, I have board members. So it really

makes it a lot more complicated, but obviously

the company winds up making a lot of money. That's

really the bottom line. To me, that is just a

really attractive thing. If it's a business owner

or an executive, do you want to increase sales?

profits, do you really want to make your company

really go thousand times better than other companies

in your industry? Do you really want to thrive?

That's the biggest thing that a business owner

probably thinks of all the time, but they don't

think of these little things that you're saying

and things that I do. I do it in a behavioral

way, but you do it in a little different. And

that's fine. Cause there's a lot of factors involved

that could be extremely complicated. Depends

on the business. It depends on how many employees.

they have when what kind of business it is. There's

tons of variables that are involved, but that's

really always going to be the most attractive

thing. Everybody wants to make money. Everybody

wants to have money in their pocket and numbers

that are really on paper that they can really

see evidence that the company is really successful.

And that's always a win -win. So that's always

what I go to. That's not the most important thing,

obviously, but that to me is the most attractive

thing for most businesses anyway. Really what

we want to create, Debbie, is a win -win -win.

Everyone should win. So it's when we align the

ROI of what employees are looking for, working

for an organization. Employees work for an organization

for a certain reason. Obviously we can, starting

really high level, they want to make some money,

but why do they want to make money? They want

to make money so they can support their families,

support their lives. They also want to have a

job where They feel appreciated and they can

grow. And for me, the reason why I even got into

what I do is create as big of an impact as possible.

Employees want to know that they're creating

an impact. So that's one piece is aligning what

employees actually want. And when you do that

and you give that to them, they're going to perform

higher, maybe more efficient and effective at

their job, which for the business owner or S

and P 500 executive, what that results in is

high. revenue and hopefully lower expenses, which

ultimately drives profit. When we look at customers,

same thing, when customers interact with our

businesses, they want to know that they're getting

a product or service that serves them and the

return on investment they're looking to get,

the payoff. And they want to understand how to

get the most out of it. This is one thing that

some of my clients that come to me is they have

the best product or the best service in their

industry. industry, but it's not that alone that

empowers them to be successful. What they need

to make sure they're doing is that their customers

understand how to get the most value out of a

product. That's where really one of the tools

I use to really serve both these groups, employees,

and customers is education. When we make it part

of our organization to educate our customers

on how to get the most of our products and the

most out of our services and how they can really

live better lives because of that, then we're

able to create the first one. When we're able

to educate our employees of what they're doing

is impactful and we're able to serve them in

a way that they live more fruitful lives. Then

that's the second one. And then the third one

is when you align those two pieces, then the

company themselves and Debbie and I have talked

about this already. We are able to increase profits.

So that's the third. So the company wins, employees

win, and the customers win. You create a win

-win -win. That's how you create impact in the

world. Exactly. And you covered it all. But to

me, this is only because this is what I do. The

most important thing, the first thing out of

all of that is that I need to change my behavior.

And as a business owner and an executive, because

you could do this if you just start a business.

It doesn't have to be a problem. You don't have

to wait until the business is a big problem.

where it's going bankrupt and whatever. So a

business owner can do this when they first start

a business, which is really the best thing. And

that starts with everybody being positive and

nobody's negative and nobody's controlling anybody.

People have job duties. They follow that. All

of these different things create a positive workplace.

That's the first thing. When that happens, then

I could go into all of... these are the parts

of the way that the organization is supposed

to run. And I want to follow all these things,

like you're saying, employee retention and product

adoption. I want to focus on that, but anything

I do, I want to go into it with a positive, no

negatives at all. And this is why big companies

are successful. This is the only reason why.

Their executives and CEOs, the ones in the stock

market, they're not negative. They don't control

their employees. They don't manipulate their

employees. employees, they don't create fear.

And this is the difference. And this is why they're

successful because we want the employees to follow

what the job duties that we give them. We don't

want the employees to control the business owner

and the executive. We don't want them to tell

them what their job duties are. We want to enforce

what the job duties are of the company. And when

you do that in a controlling way, then the employee

starts to rebel. And then the employee starts

to say, I'm going to do what I want, I'm not

going to follow what the company is telling me

to do, what the outline of my job is. So now

the employee is dictating to the business owner

and the manager what they want to do. And that

situation is not going to work out all because

the employee and the business owner created that

fear, that negativity, the controlling, the manipulation.

And that's why the employee does that. It starts

with the business owner and the executive or

whoever's the top person that's managing the

employee. employees or whatever, because that's

the person that we want to focus on, because

that's the one that's influencing the company.

And also this person could be a mentor, but you

don't know the employee. Maybe the employee wants

to change industries or something, or they're

interested in learning about a different type

of job. And the trainer or the business owner

is like their mentor and they want to teach them

and they want to get a completely different job

because they want to learn about it. So how are

they going to learn? to learn through whoever

teaches them in the company. And they have to

be positive. They have to be able to produce

this in a positive way. And that's how the employee

is going to get stuff. And you know what's going

to happen then? People are going to start calling

the company and they're not going to have a problem

getting employees. They're not going to have

a problem with employees trying to control and

manipulate them because they were controlling

and manipulating and creating fear and all of

that with their employees. And this is just a

cycle. It's just really the way that it works.

It's the way that every business works. Whether

you want to say it or not, this is the best way

to do it. And it'll be so easy to do. Yeah, Debbie.

It all starts from within. A business at some

point started with a founder or multiple founders

creating or bringing an idea to life. And when

you have a positive attitude, positive mindset

in that, you're going to attract positive. employees.

And when you attract positive employees, you're

going to also attract positive customers. So

it starts from within. When you do that focus

on the highest leverage parts of an organization,

it's going to be who is creating, who is responsible

for the most people in an organization. Could

be the business owner, could be the C -suite,

could be managers. As you grow as a business,

it's going to be all these. So when you align

the mindsets and make sure that you're pruning

and getting rid of anyone who doesn't align with

this positive mindset, then you're able to have

all the other pieces fall into place. And when

your employees are happy, they're going to serve

your customers better. And then the business

is able to grow even more because of it. And

that's really the bottom line. And that's the

most important thing. I'll ask a few of these

questions and then we'll talk about it. a little

bit, what is the biggest challenge your audience

or customers face that you help solve? So the

reason why I even got into being a business owner

is when I was at PricewaterhouseCoopers, I was

doing very good work. I was working on different

entertainment accounts. That's really why I even

wanted to work for Pricewaterhouse is because

I in college had a passion for movies and filmmaking

and telling stories and really creating impact

through stories and education. I created multiple

documentary films, worked with a couple Oscar

award -winning documentary film directors as

well. When I was at PricewaterhouseCoopers, I

saw how the company as a whole was impacting

the world, but I personally didn't feel like

I was. PwC is an amazing organization. It's why

they're the biggest of the big four accounting

firms talking about successful organizations.

But what I really... wanted to do was create

a company that could empower other business owners

and leaders to really increase profits and make

a meaningful impact. And in my early career as

a business owner, this was not my first business.

I realized that even with a strong vision, capable

team, and some momentum, I saw that businesses

were spending money on initiatives and spending

money on technology and spending money on different

things that really wasn't bringing ROI. And I

think it's easy to do. yourself spending money

on different things. Working harder, that was

another thing. Seeing businesses really work

harder and pushing their employees to work harder

and businesses, business owners working harder.

When I first started, I was working a hundred

hours a week because I thought that was the way.

That is really the biggest challenge that I help

businesses with now is simplifying in order to

scale. Coming back to the basics of serving your

employees. and serving your customers by really

identifying the return on investment that they

want in their lives. And then leveraging the

business, the services and products that a business

has to fill that ROI. Instead of doing all these

other things, spending money on all these things,

working more hours because that's what we're

taught to do. So it's really simplified. These

are all different ways of looking at how to make

a business. business become successful because

there are many moving parts and there are many

different theories and there are a lot of things

that we can do to help a business. Depends on

who you contact, who you want to help. And it

also depends on what kind of business you have.

It's really interesting. So in business school,

I learned the profit equation. So profit equals

revenue minus expenses. And recently I decided

to... ask AI what the definition of profit is,

what the definition of revenue is, and what the

definition of expenses is. And it gave me a very

interesting response. It's right on, actually.

But I don't think it's actually how businesses

operate. What A has defined profit equals revenue

minus expenses as is revenue is what is created

from selling services and selling products. It's

income into the business. Expenses, and this

is where it got really interesting. Expenses

are defined as anything that a business invests

in to operate. And I thought this was very interesting

because because that is what expenses should

be. I do find that businesses, including mine

in the early days, tended to spend money on investments

or expenses that had nothing to do with operating

the business. And I think that this definition

of the profit equation and really adjusting the

equation, where what I like to do when I'm writing

this up a board, write profit equals revenue.

And then instead of having minus expenses, I

draw a from expenses to revenue, because what

this does in our minds as a business owner and

as an S &P 500 executive, that whatever we are

spending money on needs to drive revenue in one

way or another. When I look at the equation,

I look at expenses as investment instead, and

I look at revenue as return. So we have investment.

pointing towards a return and then ultimately

creating profit. So this is what I really work

with my consulting clients with is simplifying

everything to are we investing in things that

are creating a return? And if we're not, then

let's install the Pareto principle in their business,

also known as the 80 -20 rule, which shows that

80 % of results are created by 20 % of activity.

or 20 % of N... So what I find is when we have

an organization that is ultimately looking towards

this great future and they have the positive

alignment within, and then they look at how do

we get all of our employees to focus on the investments

or the different activities in our business that

are able to create the most results for our customers,

then they're able to grow by simplifying instead

of creating a more complex business. Even large

S &P 500 organizations, I've seen this be very

successful because it comes back to what you're

saying, Debbie, where when you have leadership

who have the vision of this is where we're going,

then it becomes a lot less about here's all the

things that we've always done to get there and

a lot more about what are our customers looking

for today and how How do we align our team, their

time, the monetary resources that the organization

have? Let's put this into the 20%, creating 80

% of results. And we've really been able to exponentially

increase impact. That was very true. Thank you.

Can you share a client success story, case study,

or example that demonstrates the impact of your

work? I have a couple. One that I'm very passionate

about is... I've had this amazing consulting

client in Australia for the past year, and the

organization is called Celisol, which means well

-being for all. And the whole purpose or vision

of this organization founded by Mario is to...

help half the global suicide rate in the next

three years. This Dr. Benjamin Hardy would call

an impossible goal. But the reason why he set

this goal and we set this goal together for his

organization is to filter present day choices

and decisions and activities in the business

to work towards this goal. Before we worked together,

he was really focusing on creating impact on

a one to one basis. So B2C business to consumer,

which I feel like a lot of businesses do. And

I do feel like businesses do need a B2C business

to consumer and a business to business strategy.

When we're looking at creating global impact,

especially at the scale that Mario and Sellasol

is doing in the next three years, it can be a

higher leverage of his time and his team's time

to serve large organizations to, instead of just

going and putting one person here, one person

there through his library. programs that really

empower people to really be there for themselves,

but also empower them to be there for others

through his support over suicide program. Now,

since working together, we have installed a strategy

business to business where he is now in every

single sales transaction, able to serve not just

one person, but dozens, if not hundreds and ultimately

thousands of people. And we're talking about

employees of these organizations. What he has

been able to do is get his multitude of programs

to be D credits for employees to actually take

in Australia, so continuous professional development

credits. As a requirement, there is a specific

number of credits that employees need to take.

Depending on the industry, it's different, the

amount, but What the strategy is by having a

program that is able to create this global impact

of saving these lives and making it in a way

where the ROI is a win -win -win from the standpoint

of for the organization, by investing in a hundred,

a thousand licenses to his programs, the organization

is able to decrease turnover, employee turnover,

and it's a to, more importantly, especially in

Australia, this is a big problem, is to decrease

the number of sick days and mental health days

that employees are taking because they don't

have the support and the tools to really help

themselves and their colleagues with different

mental health challenges. He's done a lot of

research on this and just in Australia alone,

companies are sp - $1 million of the lack of

tools and programs in place to support individuals

in the mental health arena. So that's the win

for the businesses is to decrease the amount

of money that they're spending because of these

mental health challenges. The win for the employees

is they're able to really be happier and healthier

and have the tools they need to support themselves

and others. And then the win for Mario and Celisol

is getting closer and closer to halving the global

suicide rate. So I'm very happy with the work

we've done together. And really this is why I

do what I do, Debbie, is to be able to partner

with mission driven organizations like Celisol.

Or I also work with S and P 500 companies who

are supporting people and students in getting

jobs and getting paid more in their jobs by harnessing

the power of education. Really, the vision I

have for e -learning partners when I created

in the first place was to be able to empower

mission -driven organizations to change the world,

either through increasing hope. saving lives

or just making sure that people feel safe and

secure in their existence. And that's really

the organizations that I typically work with.

That's very important. And I thank you for doing

that work. And you could thank your friend too,

because this is all stuff. that we can talk about

for a very long time. And we just mentioned a

lot about the employees being happy, companies

being successful, different things, and it could

get very complicated. So this is another excellent

example. So we covered most of the topics. The

last one here is what is the most important message

or takeaway you would like listeners to remember

from our conversation? Ben, a business owner

for under 12 years now, and the number Number

one takeaway that I've really taken to heart

is when you are able to understand the problems,

the challenges that the people you serve. When

you're able to understand them even more than

they do. And then when you align that with a

solution that you can provide to make their lives

better, then you've done your job as a business

owner, you've done your job as a S &P 500 executive,

and ultimately you're going to create an impact

in the world. Agreed. And this is a good way

to end and summarize what we were talking about,

basically this whole entire podcast. We are getting

ready to close, so is there anything that you

would like to say in closing? And how can we

get in touch with you? And then I'm going to

put everything in the show notes. What I do,

Debbie, because my goal is to really help as

many business owners and S &P 500 execs as possible

is I've created what I call my Plug the Profit

Leak Challenge. It's a multi -day consulting

experience where I go live for multiple days

with C -level. with business owners, with mission

driven professionals to really uncover the profit

leaks that may be inflicting their business and

come up with a strategy to not only plug the

leaks, but help them scale. And the great thing

about this, Debbie, is I've had participants

in the challenge on day two. already find $100

,000 or more in their business without having

to bring in more sales, without having to do

anything, we were able to uncover six figures

plus in their business. If you are a business

owner or a enterprise leader to come to my next

Plug the Profit League challenge. That is amazing.

And you can really get some really unbelievable

results from doing these things. That's why all

of these things that we mentioned are so important.

We all know that the ultimate goal is to increase

sales and profits. That's obvious because everybody

makes money. Everybody's successful. Everybody's

happy. That's obvious, but there are so many

moving parts and so much that comes in between

and so much that can benefit just from a company

being successful. We've already talked about

tons of them. I thank you for being on and thank

you for listening to the Behavioral Profit Show.

gave you a new way to think about leadership

behavior, communication, or business growth.

Make sure to follow the show so you don't miss

future episodes. You can also learn more about

my work, upcoming episodes, and guest opportunities

on DebbieLongo .com. I'm Debbie Longo, executive

behavioral coach, and remember when you understand

the behavior behind the outcome, you can create

stronger decisions, better communication, and

more profitable results. And I thank you, Johnny,

for being on the show tonight. Thank you, Debbie.